Book Banners Take the Fight to Public Libraries

Out of sight, out of reach, out of mind. That’s the goal for a growing cadre of activists who are attacking public libraries for providing LGBTQ+ literature and sex ed materials to people of all ages. Tasslyn Magnusson, program consultant with Freedom to Read at PEN America, writes that amid skyrocketing book bans in public school libraries, heightened rhetoric describing LGBTQ+ and sex education content as “obscene” or “pornographic” has also proliferated across public libraries from Alabama to California. 

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Securing the Right to Education

Last week, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Farida Shaheed reported concern about a variety of issues ranging from the violent crackdown on peaceful student protesters to book bans and academic freedom in the United States. PEN America met with Shaheed over two days of discussions in Washington, D.C., as part of her official visit. PEN America called on the U.S. government to work to address her significant findings, which echo many of PEN America's continuing concerns. Shaheed noted, "I am particularly concerned about the recent trend of introducing educational gag orders… The alarming trend of book bans has raised grave concerns about censorship, freedom of expression, and the very essence of education itself." Attacks on protesters, she added, "signal a concerning erosion of intellectual freedom and democratic principles within educational settings." 

Read her report >>

Combating Political Disinformation in a World of Deepfakes

Journalists face a daunting task ahead of the 2024 election as disinformation campaigns grow more sophisticated and public trust in institutions – including the news media – declines. The National Press Club Journalism Institute hosted a conversation on May 1 between journalists and experts who laid out the scope of the disinformation problem – and how reporters can combat it. Yaël Eisenstat, a PEN America consultant, said the mere existence of AI tools sows doubt. “The awareness that these tools exist actually causes more distrust in information to begin with, and that is going to be really concerning and a really big thing for journalists to tackle,” Eisenstat said.

Read more and watch the recording >>

Honoring Voices for Change

At our 2024 Literary Gala this week, we celebrate the visionaries who embody our mission to promote literary culture and defend the liberties that make it possible. We are thrilled to honor legendary songwriter, recording artist, and philanthropist Paul Simon, Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Pham Doan Trang, the imprisoned Vietnamese author, journalist and dissident who will receive the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award. Of the 53 jailed writers who have received the award since 1987, 46 have been released, due in large part to the global attention and pressure the award generates. 

Read more about Pham Dong Trang >>

Philanthropic Visionary: Jamie Wolf

At our Spring Soiree in Los Angeles last week, we presented the inimitable Jamie Wolf with our Philanthropic Visionary Award, celebrating Wolf’s lifelong commitment to the Los Angeles creative community. Wolf’s support has benefited writers, journalists, and artists under threat or imprisoned worldwide. Wolf’s leadership of PEN Center USA prior to its unification with PEN America in 2018 led to the creation of the Emerging Voices Fellowship Program. She has long been a champion of screenwriters and has supported early career writers from communities underrepresented in publishing - an ever-growing community of writers who have broken down barriers for writers to come and transformed the literary landscape.

The PEN Ten: Parul Kapur

Parul Kapur’s debut novel, Inside The Mirror, explores the modern art movement in a newly independent India, the complex family ties which support but also bind, and women’s creativity and agency. In conversation with Free Expression Leadership Fellow Manasi Garg, Kapur discusses the relationship between art and politics, going against patriarchal expectations, and the literature that has mobilized her work. 

Read the interview >>

• Karin Deutsch Karlekar, director, Writers at Risk, spoke about how writers are silenced within Myanmar or sent into exile. (Voice of America)
   
• Freedom to Read Program Director Kasey Meehan was featured in a discussion about book banning in the U.S. along with Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer. (ABC Radio Network)
   
• PEN America Writers in the Schools volunteer Nell Freudenberger wrote about what she’s learned from her students’ college essays. (The New York Times)
   
• PEN America was quoted in an article about campus protest crackdowns as part of a right wing plan. (The Guardian)
   
• Florida Director Katie Blankenship wrote a letter along with leaders from the Florida Youth Action Fund, the ACLU of Florida, the NAACP Florida State Conference, and more to express concern over law enforcement cracking down on pro-Palestine demonstrators on campuses. (Florida Voice)
   
• Our Freedom to Write Index was cited in an article about dictators suppressing journalists, for World Press Freedom Day. (The Wall Street Journal)
   
• Tim Richardson, program director of journalism and disinformation, spoke about our revamped guide to to misinformation specifically tied to the pro-Palestinian protests. (Inside Higher Ed)
   
• Jeremy C. Young and Sam LaFrance of the Freedom to Learn team wrote that Iowa’s DEI bill would prohibit public university administrations from expressing any “widely contested opinion” on a dizzying array of specific ideas – essentially a license to ban anything the government of Iowa dislikes. (The Des Moines Register)
   
• See how PEN America defended free expression this week >>

• We join in mourning the great Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature (The Globe and Mail)
   
• Legal segregation 70 years after 'Brown' (The 74)
   
• Book Bans Are Surging in Florida. So Lauren Groff Opened a Bookstore. (New York Times)
   
• 'Afraid of knowledge’: Teachers union president takes on book bans (MSNBC)
   
• Nearly All Gaza Campus Protests in the US Have Been Peaceful, Study Finds (The Guardian)